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K E P L Y 



Delegates of the Cherokee Nation 



TO TlIK 



DEMANDS OF THE COMMISSIONER 



OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 



Mlay, 18GG. 




WASHINGTON: 

GIBSON BROTHERS, PRINTERS. 
186(5. 



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REPLY OF THE DELEGATION 



Commissioner of Indian Affairs. 



Washington City, May 12, 186fi. 

Hon. D. N. Cooley. 

Commissioner of Indian Affaiis : 

Sir — The undersigued, Delegates of the Cherokee Natioii, 
have duly considered the nine several propositions submitted 
to us by you yesterday, with the statement that unless we 
acceded substantially to all of them you would decline to 
make a treaty Nvith our people, but would recommend the 
President to seek the accomplishment of the purposes in 
them expressed in some other mode ; whether by act of 
Congress in violation of our treaties, or by a more direct 
mode of superior force, yuu did not say. 

Sincerely desirous of settling, at this time, all subjects 
requiring fresli treaty stipulations with the Government, and 
of yielding to it whatever may be proper for our people to 
concede, we regret that some of these propositions are such 
as to debar us from assenting to them. 

The propositions you make as to general amnesty, restora- 
tion of confiscated property, civil rights, and political privi- 
leges to disloyal Cherokees, have long since been agreed to 
in writing by us ; as also the proposition for the sale of the 
eight hundred thousand acres of neutral lands in Kansas ; and 



the reception as citizens of all Oherokees in North Carolina 
and other States. 

Your proposition " that we will deal as liberally with the 
t'reedmen as the Choctaws and Chickasaws have done," inas- 
much as we have no knowledge of the provisions made by 
those tribes for their freedmen. is to our mind somewhat 
obscure. But as to that, we may say that, as our Legislature 
passed the first law of emancipation of this century, and as 
we have rei)eatedly proposed to you and the Secretary of the 
Interior to make most liberal provision for our iVeednieu in 
huids and school funds, we have no doubt that any arrange- 
ment the Government would ask for their benefit would be 
freely conceded by us. 

Therefore, on five out of nine of tiie propositions of your 
ultimatum, there was, when y<'U made it, no substantial 
disagreement. As nur protracted efforts to make a treaty 
have failed because of your demanding our assent to the 
other four j)ropositions, we will present them verbafiin, witli 
our reasons for refusing assent, so that there may be no 
misaj)j)re]ien8ion now or hereafter on the subject. They are : 

1st. '• Right of way to railroads east and west, north and 
south, irifh Uheral grants of lands." 

Tile country west of the ninty-seventh ilegree, W. longi- 
tude, and the Cherokee " neutral lands," (botli which tracts 
comprise about nine millions of acres,) wliiili we have agreed 
t<» cede to the (iovernmcnt on the terms jireserihed by the 
Secretary of the Interior, may, wiien ceded, be disposed o{ 
by it in aid nf railroads, if it see fit. 

Through the country proposed to Ite reserved l»y us. Iieing 
Jil)out Hcvcn miliidns ut' acres east of the ninty-seventh th-gree 
of hmgitudc in the lii<lian Territuiy. we offered ti> give right 
<»f way and grounds for depots, maihine shops, cVc, to rail- 
roads, from north to .s..uth and east to west. If we were to 



make the grants of alternate sections for five miles on each 
side of each road, with a compensatory grant to supply 
deficiencies reaching for ten miles on each side, as heretofore 
proposed hy you, a tide of white population would set in 
upon us, which would begin by settlement on these railroad 
lands, be followed by disturbances with our people and col- 
lisions with our national authorities, and probably end by 
forcing ns from a country conveyed to us by patent in fee 
simple by the Government — guaranteed to us as a permanent 
refuge from incursions like those which forced us from our 
homes in the States — endeared to us by thirty years of toil, 
and by the blood of our people shed in defence of it and the 
Union — and beyond which, westward, there is no abiding 
place for our people. 

While our views as to the dangers of such grants preclude 
us from making a treaty by which they are given, we have 
expressly consented to provide in the treaty that our National 
Council may at any time have power to make such grants : 
so that, if on full consideration our people consent to make 
them, no new treaty will be necessary to effect the object. 

We are not insensible to the fact that the great highways 
of commerce which may touch our country must be allowed 
free passage through it. But we wholly fail to see how it 
comports with the duties of the Guardian of our interests to 
demand that we make a gift of more than a million acres of 
our land to private companies, without consultation with our 
people, and at the hazard of national security. If the Secre- 
tary of the Interior now demands this, as you report, he has 
entirely changed his views since our interview with him a 
few weeks ago, when he advised us to make no grants to 
railroads, except right of way ; and stated the evil eifects of 
such grants with quite as much emphasis as we have here 
set them forth. 



6 

2d. "A Territorial (.iuvermuent nut inconsistent with 
Senate Bill No. 459, 38tli Congress.'" 

We hiiVL- expressly ^iven uur assent t«i the estahlishiaent 
uf a Territorial Council, eoiupused of representatives of the 
several tribes in the Indian Territory, with powers of legis- 
lation on inter-tribal atiairs, and with snch other powers as 
the several tribes may grant, subject to the approval vi' the 
President; and also to the establishment of United States 
courts in our cniuitry. This is as far as the Secretary of the 
Interior ever re«inested us to go; and, in our judgment, it is 
far enough. Our peoj)le f<*ar that tin; establishment of a 
territorial government as proposed in .Mr. Harlan's bill — 
placing us, as it will, to a gre-at extent, under the rule of 
white men in the enactment and administration of local laws, 
will soon lea<l to the opening of the country to white immi- 
gration and settlement, the disruption of the nation, and 
the extinction of a large part of the {)eople. If Congress can- 
not rightfully emict that bill against the will of uur peojile, we 
submit th;it its jirovisions .sjiduhl be made known to them, 
and their assi-nt had through the National Legislature; and 
that neither Congress nor the Pre^^ident would be williiig tn 
have ati assent obtain<'d from a delegation here under the 
threats of viob-itinii .ifdur ticatirs and tdiciblc st-izure of our 
property, which you j>resent as tlic altirnative of refusal. 

!{d. " Purchase of the territory west of ninety-five and a 
half degrees, iuchnli'ff in pntnit nf kciuh millions nf (tcrts, at a 
lair jiricf." 

The treaty ot' \s'A7) M.ld (.. the Cherokee Nation nnt onlv 
the eight hundred thousand acres of neutral land, ami the 
»cven millionH of acres referred to in ytiur j)roj)osition, but 
alHo "a perpetual outlet west, and thf frrc tntd miniohsfcd 
iitic (ij III! tilt <iiuu/ii/ ii'tJit o/ thf u'vfifern lutunddni of stiiii 
mvrn millinnn <>/ ams^ us fur west as the sovereignty of the 



United States and their right of soil extends," — reserving 
only to the United States the right to allow other Indians to 
take salt from the salt plain in the country west. And in 
pursuance of an express provision of that treaty, letters patent 
were issued to the Nation for tlie neutral lands, tlie seven 
millions of acres extending a little beyond the ninety-seventh 
degree of longitude, and about eight millions of acres west 
of the seven millions, witli no reservation other than tliat as 
to the use of the salt plain. 

Your proposition ignores tlie title of the Nation in the 
eight millions of acres west of the seven millions; and, taken 
in connection with your oral declaration that the Nation have 
no title to it, clearly shows that you mean to take it without 
compensation. Knowing that tlie tract of eight millions is 
ours, by a title in perpetuity, as exclusive (except as to the 
use of the salt plain) as any of our land ; and that it was sold 
us, as was all our land, (except the neutral tract) at a price 
far beyond its present value, we will never consent to its being 
thus wrested from us. 

As to the sale of that part of the seven millions west of 
ninety-five and a half, we have to say that it was not the 
expectation of our people when we came here, that we would 
be asked to cede as much as we have already offered, to wit : 
"the neutral land," and all west of the ninety-seventh 
degree of longitude. In proposing to cede more than half 
our land, we go as far as duty and foirness to the peoi)le we 
represent will permit. 

We have been told that the United States may need 
all the country west of ninety-five and a half degrees for the 
settlement thereon of other Indian tribes. We have therefore 
already proposed to receive into that country, between 
ninety-five and a half and ninety-seven, other civilized and 



tViemlly trihcs. and let thciu have it parct'lkMl out into n-sorva- 
tions for tlieexclusivcaiul in-rpetual (iccuiiatiuiKit'sufh tribes — 
lettinjr them retain their tribal hiws and usa.ires not inconsist- 
••nt with National laws — »jivin<r them all tlieir local officers — 
equal particijtation in <»ur government, share in our lands, 
and i»ro|K'rty in <>ur lands — on their ctiMtrihutin^ to our 
National and fducational fumls sueli lair t'i|uivalent as we 
mi^'ht mutually a^^ree on, or as the President mi;^ht pre- 
scrilie. The (Jherokees live under a written Constitution — 
have annual sessions of a Natitmal Tie;j:islature, whose laws 
are jirintcd and puldisht'd and known to the ])eople — have 
District and Supreme Courts to exjtound an<l administer the 
law — have schools in which the J-m^lish lanj:;ua;^e alone is 
taught , and academies where our vouth receive tree and 
liberal education. None ot' our tunds are distri))uted per 
cajiitn, to be wa^tt-d in drunkenness, or plundeifd by traders — 
])Ut all ot'them go to maintain a vimuiuis and stable t^overn- 
ment. an<l an efficient system ot" edmation, unecjuailed amon<z; 
other Indian Nations. "^'o>i have said to us that it" the tribes 
in Kansas, none ot" whom liavr a written coiie «»t" laws, or an 
efficient tbrm of ;^ovt'rnment . would confederate with us on 
the terms proposi'd, it wotiM be ^'rratly to their advantage. 
We have reason to believe that several tribes would thus join 
US, and have asked time to consult and arrange with them to 
that end. Hut you will be satislied with nothing but an abso- 
lute cession. "U' seizure, of three-t'ourthv ofoui- land - -not being 
willini; even to take tlie linlt' wehavr olfcred on your own 
terms, and leave the 'piestion ot I'urther i^essiuns to our 
National LegiKlature. Having endeavored earnestly to 
satisfy you by every concession which our duty will per- 
mit. We lire i-oiM|ie||ed therelorc to leave the result to the 
MCHHe <»f jUMtice ot t he |'ri'sidei\t and ('oiiirress. 



9 

4th. '• A j)romise that the Cherokees (Northern) have a 
'' country north of the Arkansas and on tlie east part of the 
" Cherokee country (east of the Grand, heh)w Ross' Ford, and 
" so far west above that line extending to north line of Indian 
"country) equal to three hundred and twenty acres to each 
"man, woman and child, (Cherokee,) and eighty acres for 
" each person of color, (formerly a slave to any Cherokee,) who 
" may remain in said country. 

" Such Cherokees as may, on account of former feuds and 
" difficulties as now exist in said Nation, and who now reside 
" in the Canadian District, and west of Grand River, and east 
" of ninety-five and a half W. L., and such as go into said 
"District to reside, within one year, shall have for his or 
" their use one hundred and sixty acres for each Cherokee so 
"residing in said District, and eighty acres for each freed- 
" man so therein who was the former slave of any such 
"Cherokee, and such Cherokees, so removing into said 
"District shall have their pro rata share of the school 
"funds, equal right to participate in the benefits of the 
"academies and seminaries in the Cherokee Nation, and 
"their equitable proportion of all the funds of said Na- 
" tion — and while they so remain in said separate terri- 
" tory, the Cherokee National authorities shall not have local 
"jurisdiction over them, but so far as their dealing with the 
" United States, they shall be considered and treated as part 
"of the Cherokee Nation, and in case the two bands of 
"Cherokees shall hereafter so determine, they shall be re- 
"' united. 

"A census of the Cherokees in the Nation, and those 
"outside, in the districts above, shall be taken within one 
"year, under the direction of the United States Agent. 

"The improvements of those now in tlie districts above 



10 

" belonging to such Cherokees as may witliin one year desire 
"to return to the Cherokee country east of the Grand and west 
'*of the Arkansas, shall Le paid for hy tliose going into said 
" district.'" 

You are aware that the Cherokees have for many years 
maintained a regular government as a civilized nation — a 
" domestic dependent Nation," it is true — hut still, a Nation. 
Its polity has commended itself to all good men hy its emi- 
nent success in preserving public order, protecting life and 
property, and elevating its people in intelligence and morality. 
And it has the solemn guaranty of the United States Govern- 
ment to j)reserve it when threatened by invasion or laction. 
A few factious men, who were among the instigators of the 
rebellion, and the crudest t>f its frontier leaders, fear or 
jtretend to fear, to return among our people, and demand 
that the Nation shall be 8])lit in two — the loyal forming one 
nation, the disloyal another — and its lands and moneys parcel- 
led between them. It would be sufticient for us to say in re- 
sponse that the government which sent us here conferred on us 
n<» powers for its own destruction; and that the loyal Cherokees, 
who comprise three-fourths of the j)eople, and who sent three 
thousand soldiers to fight for the integrity of the Federal Union 
and of the Cherokee Nation, will never consent, now that the 
Union has been ])reserved, that their Nation — older than the 
[•'rdfral Union — shall bo by Union men dismembered. 

Vou inf(»rm us tliat General Stand Waitie, Colonel Fields, 
Colonel A<lair, .Major Scales, and Major Houdiiiot all late of 
the Confederate army, and now a self-constituted delegation 
in Washington to interfere in the aftairs of the Cherokee 
Nation -inform you that there has been an irreconcilable 
I'eud between the Rosa and the Stand Waitie parties, resulting 
ill terrible nmrders for nmiiv vears before the war ; that that 



11 

fued has been greatly increased by the fact that the Ross men 
went for the Union and the Stand Waitie men for the rebel- 
lion ; and that it is still so bitter that the disloyal dare not 
return to their homes ; and if they dare, their property having 
been confiscated and sold under a law of the Nation, tbcy 
have no longer homes to return to ; and therefore they want 
the national property, and funds, and the Nation itself, 
divided. 

The party leaders of the South made a similar and equally 
equitable demand of the American people : but neither per- 
suasion, nor threat, nor force, nor even fear of outside inter- 
ference, could compel the people to submit to national dis- 
memberment. 

For some years prior to 1846 there was a party division in 
the Cherokee Nation, which was so magnified by designing 
men as to induce President Polk to recommend a separation 
of the parties; but the treaty of that year followed, whicli 
healed the breach so effectually that Stand Waitie, at a fes- 
tival in celebration of the treaty, proposed in highly com})li- 
mentary terms the health of John Ross — then as now tlic 
enlightened and honored head of the Nation. Since then, 
until the immediate preparations for the rebellion began, 
there was no great bitterness between the parties, and in no 
State of the West was crime more promptly or impartially 
punished, or property and life more secure. So completely, 
in fact, had the old divisions been forgotten, that Stand 
Waitie and all the prominent leaders of tliat faction were 
repeatedly elected to the National Legislature, and to other 
chief ofiices in the Nation, (and he himself chosen President 
of the Council,) through the magnanimity of their fonner 
opponents, without regard to old party divisions. 

During the war the loyal people were stripped of their 
cattle and horses, and had their farms devastated and their 



12 

homes plundered by the disloyal, who had a safe rendezvous 
lur themselves and their plunder on Red river; and, in 
retaliation, the Cherokee Government confiscated and sold 
the abandoned farms of the rebels. But, with the return of 
peace, the animosities of war have been allayed and are fast 
disappearing, and our j)eo})le are already willing to surrender 
to returning rebels tlieir property, and to treat tht'ni as 
brethren. 

In this spirit we have formally proposed to engraft in the 
treaty a repeal of all laws of confiscations and disabilities, 
tlie surrender of houses and farms of the disloyal, the re- 
admission of all of them to every right and privilege of 
citizenshij) ; ami, to allay the alleged fears of General Stand 
Waitie and his associate delegates, we proposed that the 
United States might at any time hereafter intervene to pre- 
vent any wrong being done those who have been disloyal, 
either l)y a failure to execute the laws in their favor, or an 
oj)pressive execution of tlie laws against them. We liave 
gone still further, and oflered to set ai)art in our country 
a district into whicli all heretofore disloyal who do not choose 
to return to their homes may go and have it for their 
habitation, electing their own local officers, having an equal 
share of scliools and academies, but remaining under one 
government with us, and having equal })articipation in it. 

Further than this you have no good reason to ask us to go. 
Tliis being done, the disloyal men would all return and live 
witli ihe-ir l)rethren in pence and tViendsliip. Already two- 
thirds of the disloyal are lionie again living in absolute 
security. Among them, Hilde])rand, a guerilla captain, 
Porani, Cabin Snjith, ilo.seph Vann, late assistant chief, David 
Carter, late suijrcme judge, William Alberty, John Brown, 
and .loseph Coody, late members of council, George Johnson 
and Baldridge, Adair and Sanders, late judges of the 8U]Heme 

172 H 



B^^ 



13 

court ; and, iu fact, all the rebel Cherokee leaders (except the 
self-constituted delegation here,) towards whom, a year 
ago, there was the bitterest feeling among our people. 
Though the divisions growing out of tlie rebellion are mure 
recent, they are not at this day more bitter, than those which 
were healed by the wise policy of the treaty of 184(). A 
year or two of just and conciliatory administration of our 
affairs will end them. 

But it is not peace, security, and fraternity, these latilv 
disloyal leaders want — it is political power. They know 
full well that they and their whilom followers will be safe 
among the loyal men; and that, if there were ever so malignant 
a feeling against them, the aegis of the Cxeneral Government 
would shield them from all harm. But they know, too, that 
the men who organized the Knights of the Golden Circle in 
1859, and by every possible device led their deluded followers 
into the rebellion, will not soon again be honored with public 
confidence in the nation. Their distress arises, not from fear 
for safety, but from hunger for power ; which they cannot 
soon get but by a disruption of the nation. They instigated 
the rebellion in order that, if the Confederacy succeeded, 
they might be placed as rulers over the loyal majority. 
Failing, and unwilling now to ''stand the hazard of the 
die," they demand tliat a new nation be made for them t(» 
rule. Their plea of danger to their followers is a specious 
slander on our Government and people. As you have sus- 
tained their plea, against all our statements and remon- 
strances, we are forced to appeal from your conclusions 
and demands in their favor to a President and a Congress 
with whom the words of men who have perilled life, and 
sacrificed all but life, in the cause of the Union, will weigh as 
much as those of Confederate ofticers or the delegate to 
the rebel Congress at Richmond — who will not be eager, 



14 

but slow, tu ili.srupt u ilujiendent nation, piuml of its history 
and civilization, and its sacrifices in defence of itself and the 
Union — and who will rather allow the Confederate captains 
to quietly sink into obscurity, than reward their valor by 
;;ivinj< them a new nation to rule, torn from the body of tlie 
laithful ally of the (iovernment. 

We are, very respectlullv . 

Your ol)edient sersaul^. 

JAMES McDANIEL, 

Ldie C'tt/jtiiiti Co. •'.-!," 2(1 Indian Reyimtnl, U. S. Voh. 

SMITH CHRISTIE, 

//«/< Captain Co. ".1,' '6d Induin Regimtut, U. S Vols. 

WHITE CATCHER, 

Late Ctipldin Co. •• /," 3d Iiidiiin li'yiiiimt. I'. S. Volx. 

S. H. BENGE. 

Lnte Lii'utfnant Co. '•-4," 3d Indian Reginifut, U. S. Vnl*. 

J. R. JONES, 

iMle Chaplain, 'Id Indinti R';jiment, L'. .S. Volf. 

DAN'L H. ROSS, 

Kitcutive Couuttllor of (hf Nation . 

Dcltfjatidn npfiointt (I hy joint rc$<>hitiim of tlir Xatiinutl f.ir/inlatiirr tn 
trritt I'il/i tltr I'liitiil Sfdtrs (if to t/if nff'ui'rs <>f' t/ir ('htmlciu' Xntiov. 



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